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Terratec EWS 88D card is working well with Giga

After some struggles, noted on this forum, with
this card, I feel obliged to say that it now seems to work fine, although user should be aware of limitations that arise from it being a slightly older card:

1. It does NOT support direct monitoring of Giga. I monitor using lightpipe connected to a digital multitrack (a Fostex VF-16), letting me record directly to the VF-16 and then bounce tracks back to my pc.

2. In Windows 98SE, the latest VXD drivers are needed. They give a latency of 8 ms. They can be downloaded from the Terratec site.

The combination of EWS 88D and the VF-16 are working very well, and I appreciate the help I\'ve received from both Terratec and Fostex in getting these working together. (If only someone else had waded through the trauma of getting them working together first...)

Re: Terratec EWS 88D card is working well with Giga

I just got the EWS 88D and had a hell of a time just getting Gigstudio to recognize it. I\'m now at the point where I\'m trying to figure out why the virtual keyboard doen\'t work.

What settings do you use on your computer to get the 88D to work?

I\'ve decided recently that Windows-based computers, hardware, and software just doesn\'t deliver what they promise. I, for one, am tired of spending time I should be making music trying to figure out why a program won\'t work and getting nowhere with the manufacturer. Since buying Steinberg VST, Wavelab, Gigasampler, etc I\'ve had nothing but problems. I now have a Roland VS-880, a Yamaha Motif, and a few other toys and can make music that way.

The frustrating thing is that I hoped sequencers where the way to go because I am a guitarist, not a keyboard player, but now I\'m learning piano because at least the damn thing work when I play it.

Re: Terratec EWS 88D card is working well with Giga

If the Virtual Keyboard isn\'t working, then it may just be a simple midi problem. You say you\'re now learning keyboard. Does this mean you haven\'t used midi before?

About midi:
1. Be sure the cords run from midi in to midi out and midi out to midi in.
2. On the Settings page, click on the Hardware/Routing tab and be sure the Midi in ports are set to EWS88 D midi in.

Should work now.

Again, remember that the EWS 88D does NOT support direct monitoring of Giga sounds. You have to connect via lightpipe to another unit that does the AD conversion. I\'m using a Fostex VF-16.

Let me know if this does or does not help. Hang in there. You\'ll get it to work. The problem is just that there are settings in so many places (Giga, the Windows Control Panel, the keyboard, the sound card Control Panel, and the AD converter), and one small wrong setting makes it not work.

Re: Terratec EWS 88D card is working well with Giga

In other words, you can\'t hear Giga sounds by plugging headphones into the System Sounds out on the card. A separate DA (digital to analogue) converter is needed: you connect the card to the DA convertor and then plug your headphones or speakers (monitors) into that. I\'m using a Foxtex VF-16 multitrack, which works very well with the EWS-88.

If your goal is to listen to Giga sounds directly from your computer, you need another card. The EWS-88D just isn\'t made for this. If that\'s your goal, just take the card back and exchange it. The Audiophile 2496 and other cards will let you monitor directly, and cost about the same or less. (Don\'t get the WaveCenter PCI card, though: it\'s made like the EWS-88D, so that you need another unit with a DA converter.)

(Did you get the virtual keyboard to indicate that it was receiving midi data?)

Re: Terratec EWS 88D card is working well with Giga

I should add that, if you do end up needing another card, be sure to search this forum for all the advice on good Giga cards. Apparently, some cards work better with different versions of Windows. If you spend more time on research, you will be able to get a good card that you can set up with few problems.

(But be aware that Giga is complex, and tweaking the card\'s software and Giga to work together is only to be expected. I think most people on this forum would agree that it\'s highly unlikely that you will be able to just plug in the card, start up Giga, and be ready to go. You\'ll need to set your midi outs, select the sound card in Giga and in the Windows Control Panel, set the attentuation to avoid clipping\\distortion (and each instrument may make you change this setting), set the bit depth in both Giga and the soudn cards software, and other things I\'m probably forgetting. Once you find the correct setting, you shouldn\'t have to do this again and again. But finding those correct settings may take fifteen minutes or, if like me you are new to digital sound, longer. (But my problems were with setting up the Fostex VF-16 correctly. Once I e-mailed Fostex two or three times, I learned all the settings I needed, and have since had no problems.)

Re: Terratec EWS 88D card is working well with Giga

Again, remember that the EWS 88D does NOT support direct monitoring of Giga sounds. You have to connect via lightpipe to another unit that does the AD conversion. I\'m using a Fostex VF-16.

<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Interesting.. - I had given up and am using SBLive for monitoring. The 88D is meant to have a seperate DA converter for system sound. Obviously this does not work for some reason. Perhaps I can monitor using my pocket minidisc player, which has optical in.

Is there a way I can use the multiple ports on the EWS 88D to record multiple tracks on seperate channnels at the same from the 4 ports in GS?? or can this only be done into external hardware.

Re: Terratec EWS 88D card is working well with Giga

Let us know if you are able to monitor using the minidisk player. (I think it will have to support 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, though, and I\'m not sure a minidisk player will allow this. If it does work at a lower resolution, the sound qualtity will suffer, of course.)

The card DOES work with a DA converter. (My Fostex VF-16 acts as my DA converter.)

I\'m not sure about the ports question. Do you mean the midi ports? If so, the answer is probably yes. (I only have one keyboard hooked up, and midi works very well using the card.) Anyone have several instruments playing into a EWS 88D? (You might want to post a separate query on this forum.)